The bible never said the believers must WORK OUT THEIR SALVATION with FEAR and TREMBLING so as not to lose it.
There is this bible verse many Christians often do use to justify their claim that a believer who is already saved must daily keep working out his or her salvation that has being purchased by the precious blood of Jesus so as not to lose it.
The bible verse they often use is the book of Philippians 2:12
When you read that book of Philippians 2 very well from the verse 1 down to 12, you will understand that the passage of the scripture was not asking the believers to daily keep working the work of the law to keep their salvation they had already gotten or not to lose it. rather it was telling them to live out the salvation that Christ has already purchase for them.
It was telling them to operate in the very same nature of Christ with the world.
If you must understand, you cannot live the life of Christ with the same mind of Christ and the spirit of Christ if you are not yet saved and are in Christ.
What this set of people don’t seems to understand when they read that passage of the scripture is they don’t seem to understand that there is a difference between WORKING FOR your salvation And WORKING OUT the salvation you have already received.
This is simple English language comparison. They are both not the same if you understand English very well.
The different in them both is that, in WORKING FOR your salvation, you are expected to DO the work of saving yourself from damnation. In other words, if you must be saved, if you must make heaven (according to many beliefs,) even after what Jesus has already done for them; as a believer, they must keep working the works of the law to keep their salvation else they will lose it and not make heaven.
This kind of working for your Salvation would mean keeping the works of the law to be save even when Jesus has categorically saved us from the works of the law and has fully shown to us that salvation can only be gotten in him.
While the second WORK, which say WORK OUT YOUR salvation is the very one use in that book of Philippians 2:12 is referring to the believers to WORK OUT their salvation that they have already received.
It is actually referring to the believers showing forth or working out that which they have receive already in them to which the same nature that was in Christ which is of the comfort of love in Christ, fellowship of the spirit, and all that, that we should fulfill such.
In other words, in our dealings with other people, we must relate with other with the same spirit of that was in Christ when on earth.
It why when you read from the verse 1 of that book of Philippians 2, you will see what we were asked to be careful of when we relate to others. We were told to work out the salvation that we have receive with love, joy and care for others.
It why the next verse after the verse 12 ( that says we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling,) will make us understand that it is not us that is at work in trying to work out the spirit of the salvation that we have receive in us, but the one who gave us the salvation in the first place which is God.
We were told that he is the one that is at work in us both to will and to do…
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
This his pleasure that we are to work out through God’s working in us is of the nature of the salvation we have receive. And this is what the passage started describing from the chapter 1 of that book of Philippians 2.
How to also know that statement in the book of Philippians 2:12 is not to be taking literally is to obverse the choice of word uses by the writer or the translator in that Philippians 2:12 that says we should work out salvation “with fear and trembling”
That statement can never be from God, as well it wasn’t direct communication as you are thinking it to be. To understand this, you should understand that fear and trembling are never a godly statement or a godly character to be used on the believer.
We must understand that Fear is never one of the fruits of the spirit for the believer, neither is it of the feature of light. Rather fear is of the devil. It is of nature of darkness. And anything born out of fear will never produce a fruitful holy result.
As such God can never expect his children whom he has already saved to live in fear and at the same time be trembling in working for the salvation he has already purchase for them so as not to lose it again or so that they can make heaven
That wouldn’t be God speaking through the writer.
That will be a confusing state for the believers which might be coming from the translator of the verse.
God can only tell the believer to live in one of his nature and character which would be of either of love, care mercy, patient and etc., rather than asking them to live in perpetual fear and trembling in this world towards making heaven.
Now this is the right interpretation of that bible verse, and this is how to read your bible to have a clear understanding of the writer.
I hope this is clear.
Ehigamen Kingsley
Writing to reform the mind
